Purpose of Supplements

Purpose of Supplements

You may have heard the term “Supplementing” used by your roofing representative. This term can seem confusing to those outside of the contracting industry. The following should give you a good understanding of what supplementing is, and why it is necessary most insurance related projects.

Unlike a standard remodeling project where a representative of the contractor reviews the project and gives you a price for the work, insurance estimates are first written by an insurance company claims adjuster. Often after a large storm these

adjusters will be very busy, and have a very small window if time to inspect a property. This leads to items being missed on that original estimate. The Supplemental Estimate prepared by your contractor is how you bring these additional items to the attention of the Insurance Company.

Some homeowners have asked how the pricing for these supplements is arrived at. Often it is done using the Insurance Company’s pricing software, but sometimes in unique situations the actual costs of making the repairs in your local market are used. The cost of this additional work is agreed upon before the work commences. One of the key items that your roofer should be paying attention to is building code compliance. All projects need to be completed to the minimum workmanship levels outlined in the building code. Much of the supplementing process revolves around addressing this issue. Because codes vary from area to area out of state adjusters may not be familiar with what it takes to build a project to local code standards. A quality contractor will spot the missing pieces and bring them to the insurance companies’ attention. Depending on the amount of items that were missed in the initial inspection this may add a few days to a few weeks to the project lead time. Although this slows down the process for everyone, it is the difference between a project that looks right, and a project that is right.

So what is accomplished after the supplement estimate is reviewed very often is a better estimate - one which more realistically takes into account all the damages and allows a fair price to cover the costs of the repairs, and allows for quality repairs to be done to your home.